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Monday, July 17, 2006

Xmas December Dessert Party

It's too hot to be talking about chocolat chaud... But I want to post about an Xmas party. David Dewey was my watercolor Prof for 12+ year at NAD, Parsons and summers at his Maine workshop. Annually David ran a Christmas dessert class that we all looked forward to. We'd bring in outrageous desserts and DD would set up a crazy, wild still life. We'd paint for 2 hours and finally eat the desserts and drink champagne to celebrate!This is an old Xmas demo of David's from 1996. Painting CHOCOLATE is no piece of cake...We were not supposed to use any "brown"colors. Instead we had to mix the chocolate color out of Indian Red + Pthalo Blue for example.I painted this at the 2000 dessert party. Pencil notes are all over it - overheard comments by David: "Frustration is healthy...you can always throw it away..continuity & change...what keeps you going - maintain interest.

trust the medium...be loose"I did color swatches last week using Fancy Food Show choco bits. The trick is not to let the BROWNS go dead.

Go for a "chocolatie" feeling. "Organic paint" is when "pigments are allowed to mingle naturally on the palette or on paper wet-on-wet to describe three-dimensional form".

Taken from David's book, THE WATERCOLOR BOOK, one of the best.Some of my fellow classmates dessert paintings:Pam Fenwick did this painting last December.From Ruth J. BaronVivian Troy's painting.Last May David announced he was going off to Maine to paint full-time and he left our gang of 20 Tuesday-night-devotées. Since then I've been painting chocolate and desserts 24/7!

Set up your OWN party! Carol, this is a really fun post, but I am now SO craving chocolate! I have a feeling that 'meeting' you will not be good for my figure--or my wallet.Yummy, yummy-looking things here.

I must say Miss Mole this is your best post. I love the fact that you have included work by others in your class and it's nice to see the similarities and differences between your work and theirs. I love the idea of the Xmas party/class. It's very inspiring when instructors come up with new exhiting ways of teaching.

OH Laura! Please come and rescue me from a drawer full of choco samples I got at the Fancy Food Show! Usually I lose weight in the summer-who doesn't? I just MUST finish the chocolate post and then out it goes or to the landlady. I love the idea of setting up my own dessert painting party TANKS :)

j.lo interesting point..I don't think the watercolor choco cakes will get you salavating the way a photo will, much less the real thing. It's more like an aide-memoire...My prof is always saying, lose the subject matter, forget it, yet he surely does a swell job of interpretation. Go figure that one out. Are you going to give us more Paris tales..?

greetings,thanks for submitting to delightfulblogs.com. After checking out your blog we IMMEDIATELY added it to the directory. What a fantastic, mouth watering discovery. Can't wait to share it with the folks who visit the directory.

Carol, I love your blog. It is quite mouth-watering and very rich. I found you via Kelli Bickman's website and I have passed your blog on to some of my friends. I especially love this post--the one with the Boston Creme Pie--at least, I think that is what it is. It appears to have the typical custard layers, the thick chocolate glaze-frosting and the cherry on top. For my birthday my mother would always get a Boston Creme Pie from the local bakery (I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota). I attempted to make one myself a few years ago, but they are not that easy to make, so I leave that to an expert baker. I also have a blog--not as tasty as yours (oh, well), at http://www.rutabagareview.blogspot.comJeanne

Hi Jennc :) I want to know what you think of the ending of BASIL..? I'll check back.David's WC book is very challenging-way more food for thought than most WC books out there. Every inch of it is instructional. Also you might want to look at www.handprint.com for tons of inspiring WC info. Classes do help to keep you going-why it's so annoying that DD left us :( But I use this blog as my motivator now-the results vary but it keeps me painting :)

Ruby R - Thank you for your comments and stopping by. Not being from Boston I'm not up on those creme pies-I'll check out Google though :)

Paris Mail

♥carol gillott♥

l'Ile Saint Louis, Paris, Ile de France, France

Hi I'm Carol Gillott,
My Mom taught me watercolors at 5. I'm still at it, now tripping over cobblestones, living in a 6th-floor garret on l'Ile Saint-Louis, Paris. Read Parisbreakfast with a hot chocolate and croissant.
I paint Paris breakfasts.